The Humble Christian: Preach. Die. Be Forgoten. | Pride Kills. Faith in Factions Kill.

Austin Ussery

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Intro

Good morning Church Family, how are you? Everybody good? Cool Cool.

Well it has been a little bit since I’ve been in the pulpit on a Sunday morning, so I would just like to say thank you to you Church family for letting me be up here, and thank you to Pastor Randy for letting me preach. He doesn’t have to give up his pulpit but I am thankful that he will and allow me to step in.

Anyways, thank you. I’m excited to be with you preaching this morning.

This text, this text is kinda strange, i’m not gonna lie, when we read it here in a second it’s not gonna be on you put on your wall any where.

But this is a warning from Paul.

So. Among the Ruins. Why’d we call this series that?

In 410 AD the Rome is sacked by the Visigoths, a Gaulic King named Aleric conquered the city.

This was the first time the city of Rome had fallen to a foreign army. 800 years. This was a giant shock in the ancient world.

Rome, the eternal city, snuffed out.

After Rome fell, the roman empire begins to crumble.

Rome is the empire is what held the western world together. They built the roads, they had the armies, they carried out law and order, they had the currency. They had the language.

They were the world. Rome’e empire stretched all the way to modern day England. London was founded by the Romans in 46 AD. The Romans controlled everything.

Then in 410, the lights went out. Roman power in the world was really no more.

Imagine a power grid going out, watching the light in the western world go dark.

The glue that held the world together came unstuck. It knocked civilization back to before the time of Jesus. to before the time of Julius Cesar. The Lights went out

We call this time in western history the Dark Ages. Knowledge was lost. There are not many resources or primary sources to go by.

What we do have shows an interesting picture of what life was like post Rome.

the first few years of life was relatively the same. There was still living memory of what Rome was like. but, as the generation who remembered died, so did the knowledge.

Within 150-200 years, the people in Britain couldn’t remember Rome. The empire faded out of memory, in to legend, and legend on to myth.

We have an account of some 5th and 6th century English people who are going through the country and looking at the Roman Aqueducts they built these big stone structures that carried water for miles and these huge stone forts that were more advanced than anything being built in their day and these guys are looking around and asking, what giants built these things? What are they? How did they build them? What were they for?

These people lived among the ruins of an empire and civilization that held it together for close to a millennium and had no idea what was going on. That society had taken for granted all that was done by the Romans, it’ll never go away. but it did. now they are figuring out how to live among the ruins of Rome.

So, Among the Ruins.

That is why we have named this series going through 1 Corinthians, Among The Ruins. What does it look like to exist as a Christian in a post christian world.

We have a living memory of a christian society, most of us remember when Christianity was not prohibitive to a standing in society.

We are past that now, the world we live in is going to be increasingly hostile to the basic truths to Christianity.

and what is kinda funny, in like a laugh so we don’t cry kinda way, we act surprised. Like we weren’t warned that people are going to really not like us,

we act like Jesus wasn’t crucified as a criminal.

It’s here in scripture.

It’s here in 1 Corinthians.

I think the passage we are going to look at is pulling back the veil on how we think the world works, and showing us how the world actually works.

This passage should be a dose of reality for us. It should be a warning for us.

Context

So let’s look at at 1 Corinthians 4:6-13, if you have a bible go a head and flip over there to it, if you don’t have a bible, grab the one in the pew right there, we want you to see the text as we go through it.

And if you don’t have a bible at home, take that pew bible with you, you can have it, take it use. if you have a bible at home but it’s not here, bring it next week.

Scripture will always be more tangible when it is tangibly in your hand.

So, 1 Corinthians 4, whats going on so far in Corinth?

Well Paul is writing about how to live in a world where you are not liked, as the church.

He is giving them examples of, here’s how to do it and here is how not to do it.

He is also addressing the problems with in the church.

And so the main thing that Paul is addressing here is Pride.

He is giving example and more examples of how the apostles should act, how the ministers should act.

He uses himself, he uses Apollos, Cephas.

and he contrasts how the teachers were acting and what they were teaching in Corinth.

As Pastor Randy preached last week, the minsters are supposed to be the under rowers the guys at the bottom of the ship not knowing where they’re going only they know who they are going for.

Steady rowers, rowing in the dark, rowing when it seems pointless, but rowing because they know they’re supposed to row. Because they are about the masters work.

So Paul sets up what the ministers are supposed to be

— then goes in to what becomes of ministers when they are not the under rowers, when Pride takes over.

What happens to a church with the church goes out beyond scripture.

So Let’s read this passage together. 1 Corinthians 4:6-13 before we do that though, let’s pray for out time in the word.

pray

Okay read this with me, verse 6

1 Corinthians 4:6–13 ESV

6 I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. 7 For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? 8 Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you! 9 For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. 10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. 11 To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, 12 and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; 13 when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.

Alrighty, so that’s a pretty cheery passage right? Ends on a high note. T-Shirt that bad boy.

Scum of the world. FBC Gray.

Look at this at first read this is a weird passage, but what is Paul trying to say to the people in Corinth?

Pride Kills with in the church

Well, what’s been going?

So what has been going on it, there were different teachers in Corinth, and everyone had their favorite teachers, everyone had their favorite minister.

Which sounds kinda like us, we have our favorite preachers we like to listen to,

I’ve always been a fan of David Platt. I’ve always like Tim Keller. Recently i’ve been listening to Alister Begg.

On the surface nothing wrong with having a favorite, or really just a preference.

But what was going on were these teachers were become more important that scripture,

these guys were the best at speaking, they were the funniest, the most eloquent, they sounded the smartest.

And the people at Corinth latched on to these teachers, they started looking down on others who liked another guy better.

This past April, Randy and I went to to a Pastors conference, T4G, had all the these big wig pastors there, it was a pretty monster lineup of preachers, all your heavy hitters on there.

It’d be like if Skynyrd, and the Allman Bros, and ZZ Top all went on tour together. At there peak, ya know, Before the Plane crash, not cover band Skynyrd.

But all the heavy hitter preachers were on there. and there was this guy that both Randy and I were looking forward to hear preach, he’s an older pastor, very highly regarded, crazy intellectual, named Sinclair Ferguson, and we were like, “oh an I can’t wait to sit and hear this guy preach,”

and we did.

and he was just okay. he was kinda boring, didn't say anything bad, but he was boring, his voice would put you to sleep.

Nothing wrong with him. And we were underwhelmed.

Nothing wrong with that but

Now imagine had we said that to someone there and they wanted to fight after that, “Sinclar was boring, guy pulls out a pistol.” how wild would that be?

Or if Randy and I had got up during Ferguson’s sermon and was like, Billy Graham for life and threw a chair or something? Became Bobby Knight at a pastor’s conference.

but that is what was going on in Corinth, basically these cliques were being formed and people were fighting about who was the better teachers. and if you didn’t follow the right one, not only were you were wrong, you were unfaithful in your walk with Christ.

That is why here in verse 6 , Paul says,

“6 I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.”

If you want to know how to act, act like us. We are acting in this manner for your benefit.

This is for your good.

The divisions and disunity is what happens when you go beyond scripture — when your skills with reason and logic and words become the thing you rely on, not scripture.

When you you rely on your own reason and understanding to teach, you get puffed up, you get a big head. You think you are the end all be all,

But Paul is saying that is not what this is about.

Scripture is what brings about life change, not the logic of man. be wary of who you listen to.

Now, can you preach the gospel in a logical fashion, absolutely, it is how Tim Keller preaches.

But a lot of the time though some of the most listened to preacher are the ones who just brush up against the bible, give you a feel good story and send you on your way, That’s how Joel Osteen preaches.

Which one of those guys is Puffed up?

Paul is saying, when we rely on ourselves we are forgetting who we are, and it is a detriment to the church.

IF we think we can do this without the holy spirit, without the impact of the scriptures, then we have made ourselves in to a sort of God.

If we as a church think we can run this place with out relying on the holy word and doing it the way God intends for us to do,

then we are turning out schemes and methods and business plans into holy writ and doctrine.

When we do this, Paul says, Pride creeps in.

Now Pride is a curios thing, because pride can creep in on good things, pride can be a good thing, but unchecked pride becomes sin.

Look at it, our Pride forms in to pride of self, a Pride that says, I am the man, without me this wouldn’t have happened.

And that is easy to fall in to in there church.

A thing that I am proud of is the fact that as a church since I’ve been here, we have baptized about 20 students, as a church we have probably baptized 30-40 people since I’ve been here.

Church we can be proud of that, but we need to be careful, because the enemy can use that same pride to turn in to conceit, Pride become this pride of self, our thinking, goes from “i’m proud of the fact that the church is being the church, look at how the Lord is moving” to “look what we did.” hear the difference? one gives us glory the other gives God the glory.

now i’m not saying that we are like this here at FBC don’t hear me say that.

But this is Paul’s warning to us, to check our pride at the door.

It is not about us. The Lord is where we find our strength, and the Lord is the one who brings life change.

Paul says check your Pride. Because Pride kills inside the church, Pride takes a group of people and divides them. Pride takes the body and cuts it up. Pride causes disunity in the church.

Pride causes us to see ourselves as the ultimate arbiter of morality and truth, not scripture and that unchecked pride will cause us to do great harm to one another inside the church.

Pride kills inside the church.

Factions Kill outside the church

Let’s keep going, look at the rest of this passage.

So far we see inside the church pride kills, but the rest of the passage is showing what happens outside the church when we are divided, when our factions inside the church spill out, when we go beyond scripture outside the church,

Paul here starts listing off a bunch of ironic statements, contrasting how we are going to be viewed, with how the church in Corinth is trying to set themselves up to be viewed.

Look at what he says they’re trying to do, then contrasted by how the world is going to treat the Christian life. look at verse 8-10

1 Cor.4:8-10

“8 Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you! 9 For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. 10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute.”

Look at what he is saying to them.

He is calling the naive,

you all have your factions, all of you have become somebody, look at how the world views you. You’re one of us!

This is what the world’s idea of the modern Christian is. That is what they want us to be.

The World is saying, They’re one of us, they have the same philosophy as us, this Christ of theirs is just a way to gain more knowledge.

Thats what the Greeks loved. Enlightenment, they loved their philosophies and systematic ways of thinking.

The Teachers in Corinth are happy to give them these things.

“Here is some new ways to think, and sprinkle some Jesus on there, but no too much.”

Paul is saying — look where this has gotten you, look at your church.

The divisions on the inside are tearing it apart and the factions on the outside are hooked up with groups and people that aren’t good for the gospel.

So what is Paul saying to us?

He is waring us about hitching ourselves to things that aren’t the gospel.

He warning us about being taken advantage of.

He saying protect the people of the church. Let the church be for the gospel.

For a long time in our history in the US, for better or for worse, Christians had it pretty easy, all the top folks were Christian, you had to be a Christian to if you wanted to be somebody, and the church as a whole had a pretty good deal going, we sat very close to power, we were prominent in society. It mattered who went where for church.

But if we look at the road the church was on here in the US, that road got more and more rocky, we cozzied up to buisness men, and politicians more than we should have and our churches began to reflect that,

somewhere on that road, churches stop being influential and started being influenced.

Our churches ran like corporations, our denominations started having factions. Our polity started to reflect the constitution more than scripture.

Our Pastors became rock stars.

We began to look more and more like what we hitched ourselves too.

And now look where we are.

The infighting as spilled over, our pastors who became rockstars started having rockstar problems, our churches who became corporations started having corporate problems.

The church hitched it’s self to the reason and cunning of man thinking we would gain power,

Paul says, You became Kings, You are held in honor. Look where that has gotten you.

This 2000 year old warning was pretty spot on.

We have lost any sort of honor we had in the world’s eyes when we saw where it was going and finally said, enough is enough. in doing so, we lost any sort of standing in society. It is not a bad thing that we lost it, we don’t need it, but know we have to learn to live in the former world we created.

The world became indifferent to us, for a time and now is becoming hostile to us.

like A couple days ago I was on twitter and someone had retweeted something about homeschooling and how it was morally wrong to homeschool and not have the state teach your children.

Which first off, whoa, the 1776 side of me came out, you and what army?

So I clicked to see the comments and the one that stuck out to me the most was someone said, “I have to homeschool my kids, there isn’t a good public school and all the private schools teach racism, Christianity and homophobia.”

There is it, that is how the world views us.

and so this is where Paul starts to pull back the veil on what the world is really going to think of us.

This is where Paul shows us what it is like to live among the ruins, to live in a world that is not going to like us, and what that reality is, and how do we act?

Preach the Gospel, Die, and Be Forgotten.

Paul has just finished telling them what they will have gained by bending and shaping to the world and by relying on their own power.

Honor, they’ll be kings, they’ll have power.

But Paul says that power you have, it means nothing, that power you think you will have, it doesn’t save souls.

Then Paul tells them what it is like to suffer for the Gospel and what the world is going to think of us. And want to do to us.

verse 11,

1 Corinthians 4:11–13 ESV

11 To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, 12 and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; 13 when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.

Thats a pretty stark contrast,

Paul is telling them, the gospel is worth the world hating you.

If they take away your comforts, great, the Lord planned for that.

when they revile you and make fun of you, turn the other cheek, bless them. When they persecute you, endure.

Know that you will be the most hated. The scum of the world is what Paul says, and that word scum there, is already just gross, but in the greek it literally means “old dirty bath water.” Just nasty.

So what is Paul getting at?

What kind of person is going to make a Christian who can endure and have eternal impact for the kingdom.

What sort of person is the Lord looking for?

Its not a wise person. Not the best speakers, not the best writers, no the most charasmatic. What is the one trait God wants from us, and if we don’t have it, he makes us in to that sort of person.

Humility

Be Humble.

Paul in a way only Paul can say, is telling them to be humble. The world is not going to like you anyways.

SO serve. You don’t need the world to like you. Humility is the trait every major person in the bible has and if they didn’t have it, the Lord Humbles them.

Humility is the way to change the world.

Paul is saying if you want to change how the world works, you don’t do it through the ways of man, you don’t try to hitch on to a political party, you don’t place your hope in leaders, you don’t even place your hope in great preachers.

Paul is saying, be humble in your walk. That is the way the upside down kingdom of God will come about. That is how the lord is working to redeem and restore the world.Through Humble servants.

and so, how do we do with this?

Three things we can do to be humble servants of the Lord. and good news, two of these will happen naturally.

So 1st thing, Preach the Gospel. then Die and be forgotten.

Preach the Gospel, Die and Be Forgotten.

If we are going to tell anyone anything, it should be the gospel.

Look, Paul is telling them, the gospel is all that matters.

and the gospel may not be explicitly shown here in this passage but it’s fnger prints are all over it,

The Gospel goes against any sort of wisdom given by men, it goes against and sort of way you you would write the story.

The Gospel is that the king came and died for the slave. That God came and dealt personally with your sin problem. That was the only way sin could be dealt with. The King stepping off the throne and on to the cross.

Preach the Gospel, Die and be forgotten.

For all of us in here, we are all going to die, we are probably most of us, are going to be forgotten.

The only one who will remember us, is the one who told us to go, told us to preach the gospel. and all he is going to care about is if we preached the gospel.

P2Christ

So what do we do with this.

Well Church, hear the warning of Paul, lock this away up here and let it be a lens through which you view the world.

We should ask the lord to show us divisions and factions, and how we can heal them. how we can be a unified church with one unified goal.

To put in place measures that are long range looking down the road to see where the pitfalls of the world may be. to see how the world is shifting and be ready for it. To have an answer.

The reason why is,

We are not the only people living among the ruins. The world is living among the ruins of a world in which christianity meant something, where belief in God was the majority.

It has already forgotten who built the world we live in.

But

The world is searching for a meaning that is higher than themselves. Look at the protest going on, look at the demand for social justice, the world knows something is broken but doesn’t know how to fix it.

Let is be the ones who humbly know the way. Let us be the ones who are salt and light in this world.

Let us show the world who is the king.

let’s pray.

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